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Summary

Following an encounter with a Romulan mine, Enterprise has suffered damage which requires extensive repairs. In fact, Trip Tucker estimates that he would need three to four months to complete the repairs, assuming they could even find tritanium alloy. Moreover, the damage is so extensive that Enterprise cannot travel faster than warp 2.1, which would take Enterprise about a decade to reach the Jupiter Station, and the ship is essentially dead in space.

Given their dire situation, Captain Archer orders Hoshi Sato to send out a distress call asking for assistance with repairs. The call is answered by a Tellarite freighter, which points them to a repair station. When Enterprise arrives at the station, they find it to be completely automated and quite sophisticated: it can adapt its environment to its guests and possesses impressive technology such as a food replicator, a kind of protoplaser, and more. Even more interesting is the station's offer to completely repair the ship in less than a day and a half in exchange for a choice of several nearly trivial compensations; after discussing the loss of any irreplaceable items, they settle on an exchange of two hundred liters of warp plasma.

The repair station

Following a great first impression, Archer slowly discovers that all is indeed too good to be true, and surmises that something definitely does not feel right. While the station does not seem to pose any immediate threat to the ship or crew, it turns out to be very self-protective: Tucker and Malcolm Reed are teleported back to Enterprise when they attempt to learn more about its computer core.

The situation appears to have taken a tragic turn when EnsignMayweather is found dead in launch bay 1. The evidence suggests that he disobeyed orders to stay out of the sections under repair, leading to his death by isolytic shock. However, Archer refuses to believe that Mayweather was that foolish. The autopsy confirms the captain's doubts: the body is not Mayweather's, but that of a near-perfect replica: even if Mayweather was dead, there would still be microorganisms (from a Rigelian fevervaccine recently administered ship-wide after a crewmember was infected with the disease) living in the bloodstream, but they are also dead - since they thrive on isolytic energy, the shock that killed Mayweather would have, if anything, increased their number. DoctorPhlox suggests that replicating living organisms is beyond the abilities of the station.

The captain decides to investigate the matter in more detail and assembles a team to reach the computer core. They easily disable the protective mechanisms and are surprised by what they find: dozens of unconscious bodies, connected to the computer, still alive but with irreversible brain damage, as their cerebral cortices have been reorganized by the station's core.

When they unplug Mayweather, the station turns hostile. With everyone finally back aboard Enterprise, the station refuses to let the ship disembark. It threatens to destroy the ship, locking out the crew from all systems.

The repair station begins repairs on itself

Archer still has an ace up his sleeve, however, as he had arranged to place a detonator next to the warp plasma canisters that were delivered as payment for the repairs. The detonator ignites the plasma and seemingly destroys the station, finally allowing Enterprise to escape, repaired and with its entire crew.

As Enterprise warps away, however, some parts of the repair station that had been left in wrecks slowly come together and begin repairing themselves...

Log entries

"Captain's starlog, supplemental. It's been almost four days since the incident in the Romulan minefield. Repair teams have been working around the clock. Nerves are definitely frayed."

Memorable quotes

"We've answered enough calls for help over the past year - it's time someone returned the favor."

- Archer

"It can't be ethical to cause a patient this much pain."
"It's unethical to harm a patient; I can inflict as much pain as I like."

- Reed and Phlox

"Your inquiry was not recognized."

- Automated repair station

"Evenin' subcommander!"

- Tucker, after he and Reed are transported onto the bridge

"It might comfort you to know, he felt very little pain - an isolytic shock instantly impairs the...(the doctor starts to lose concentration when he looks at his PADD) the nervous...(looks up at the biobed scan) that's odd...they're dead! All of them!"

- Phlox, comforting a distraught Sato during Mayweather's autopsy, only to realize her grief might be premature

"Did you find something?"
"As a matter of fact, I did - this is not Ensign Mayweather!"

- Archer and Phlox, revealing the shocking truth

"It's ironic, in a way. The station can duplicate a dead Human body in all its exquisite detail, yet a living, simple one-celled organism is beyond its capability."

- Phlox describing the station's bio-replicator

"The station's got us by the thrusters."

- Tucker, as Enterprise is trying to get away from the repair station

"You look pretty good for a dead guy."

- Archer, to Mayweather

"I think it's time we deliver our payment."

- Archer, ordering Reed to ignite the warp plasma on the station

"But what about all those other people?"
"According to T'Pol's scans, most of them had been there for... years. The damage to their brains was irreversible."

- Mayweather, concerned for the other lifeforms kidnapped by the station, and Phlox

Background Information

In the audio commentary for this episode, the writers reveal that this episode was an attempt to diverge from previous episodes of Star Trek in which a ship is critically damaged in one episode, but miraculously repaired in the next, with no mention of repair work.

This episode also shows taken-for-granted Federation technologies, such as the food replicator and medical regenerator, before Starfleet has devised them for themselves.

Roxann Dawson not only directs this episode, but also performs as the voice of the automated station. Previously, she played the Cardassian computer in VOY: "Dreadnought" (although in that case it was specifically stated that B'Elanna Torres, also played by Dawson, had reprogrammed Dreadnought's original computer voice to her own out of frustration at the original voice).

This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series.

Continuity

The plot of this episode continues on from "Minefield", with Enterprise seeking repairs after being damaged in that episode, as well as Reed still recuperating from the injuries suffered during the encounter. This is one of relatively few episodes outside of the Xindi arc to carry on directly from the previous episode without being a two-parter.

Trip Tucker makes reference to scratching the hull in an inspection pod. This is reference to ENT: "Broken Bow", where he does indeed scratch the hull. "Broken Bow" took place about a year before this episode, and the time reference is correct.

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